David Wighton

At last some good news for Britain’s big oil companies. The word is that the evidence uncovered by the Brussels inquiry into possible oil price manipulation is not as explosive as some had hoped. It seems there is no evidence that the companies that were raided, including BP and Shell, were

The Times CEO Summit brought together more than a hundred business leaders in the Institute of Directors’ splendid Pall Mall headquarters to address the question of Britain’s Place in the World. There was a nearly unanimous answer. In Europe. Not only was there wide agreement that Britain should

There may have been little new news in the Government’s infrastructure announcements last week, but there was one surprise. And it was a shocker. The estimated cost of the HS2 high-speed rail line has shot up from £32.8 billion to £42.6 billion. Well, that is what happens with big infrastructure

Has the Chancellor really changed his mind about breaking up Royal Bank of Scotland? That was the implication when he announced a quick review of the proposal to strip billions of pounds of toxic assets out of RBS before selling any of the taxpayers’ 81 per cent stake. But some astute observers

This will be a very big week for British banking. The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards is rushing to get its long-awaited report out in time for George Osborne to respond to its recommendations in his Mansion House speech on Wednesday. What the commission and the Chancellor say about

When John Quelch agreed to become a non-executive director of WPP, he thought the job would be interesting. For a bit. He didn’t think it would last 25 years. Today, finally, at the advertising group’s shareholder meeting in London, Mr Quelch will stand down from the board after one of the longest

Tax havens are “sunny places for shady people”, Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, declared. Efforts to shine a light into the darkness are paying off more quickly than even the most optimistic campaigners would have thought possible a few years ago. Progress has been boosted by

If you want us to pay more tax in Britain, don’t lay a guilt trip on us, change the rules. That was the message from Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, to the politicians last week. Fair enough. Unfortunately, it will take a long time to get international agreement on rule changes. But, in the

Is a drug to treat migraine more valuable than one that cures a rare cancer? Is a medicine that extends life by six months worth more than one that improves health in mid-life? Does treating a baby have the same value as treating a Nobel prize-winning scientist? These are difficult questions for

Every motorist “instinctively knows” something is wrong with how much we pay at the petrol pump, Quentin Willson, the fuel price campaigner, said recently. It may be that those instincts are right, given the news that BP and Shell are being investigated by European regulators about the potential

David Wighton

David Wighton is a columnist and chief business commentator at The Times. He was previously Business and City Editor. Before joining The Times in 2008, he spent 14 years at the Financial Times where he was Financial News Editor, Chief Political Correspondent, US News Editor and New York Bureau Chief. He has also been City news editor at the Daily Telegraph.